Lawless Day at Exeter

29 May · Exeter, Devon

No longer kept

Many people in Exeter believed that on 29 May the law took no notice of any breach of the peace short of downright riot, so the day was called Lawless Day. After the bells had rung, gangs with bludgeons fought for the best spots, then dammed the steep street gutters with mud, mats and straw to make pools called bays, sometimes two feet deep. Anyone who would not give something was splashed and drenched, while those who paid got safe passage and three cheers, and halfpence thrown in the water set the gangs scrambling for them. The rabble sometimes dragged out the parish fire engines to play on passers-by, and the day often ended with the constables locking up the ringleaders.

take no cognizance of any misdemeanors and breaches of the peace, short of downright rioting, on this day

From Hone's Year Book, cols. 636-638. Read the original

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Also on this day

Folklore from the old calendars

Oak Apple Day Still kept EnglandThe anniversary of Charles II's return in 1660 was kept by wearing oak leaves in the hat and on horses' heads, for the oak at Boscobel that hid him after Worcester.
Oliver at Tiverton No longer kept DevonA correspondent told Hone that at Tiverton on 29 May young men dressed in the style of the seventeenth century and armed with swords paraded the streets collecting money.
Royal Oak, the Whigs to provoke No longer kept NorthumberlandBrand remembered that the boys of Newcastle had a taunting rhyme for Royal Oak Day, which they shouted at anyone they met on 29 May without oak leaves in his hat.
Oak boughs for Penderell and King Charles No longer kept LondonRichard Penderell, one of the brothers who hid Charles II after the battle of Worcester, was buried in the churchyard of St Giles in the Fields, and it was once the custom to dress his monument with oak branches every 29 May.
The Royal Oak Day holiday rhyme No longer kept Northern EnglandSchoolboys greeted the twenty-ninth of May with a rhyme threatening to run away if they were not given the day off.
Up with the rump at Driffield No longer kept YorkshireAt Driffield in the East Riding a three-line rhyme was sung or said every 29 May: up with the rump, down with the stump, and away with the Presbyterians.
The end of birds’-nesting at Fishlake No longer kept YorkshireAround Fishlake, 29 May marked the close of the birds'-nesting season.
May babies at Starcross No longer kept DevonAround Starcross the children marked Oak Apple Day by carrying May babies, small dolls neatly dressed and decked with flowers.
Nettles for the disloyal in Nottinghamshire No longer kept NottinghamshireOn Oak Apple Day Nottinghamshire children carried nettles as well as oak twigs, and stung anyone not wearing royal oak.
Go to bed at noon Lore and belief EnglandGoatsbeard was known in the country as Go to Bed at Noon, because its flowers opened with the morning sun and shut regularly about midday, whatever the weather.
Birds’ eggs in the Oak Apple garlands No longer kept EnglandFor the 29th of May boys robbed hundreds of nests and strung the eggs like pearls through the garlands hung across the village streets, the big eggs of hawks, crows and magpies in the middle and the tiny wrens' eggs at the ends.
Scotland Feast at Sheffield No longer kept YorkshireOn the eve of Scotland Feast, kept every 29 May, the people of Scotland Street in Sheffield went out by night and brought back sixteen to twenty young trees, mostly birches from Walkley Bank, and planted them in rows down both sides of the street.
Blooding the hounds on Cranborne Chase No longer kept Dorset, WiltshireEvery 29th of May the buck-hunters of Cranborne Chase met with oak boughs in their hats to show their loyalty and hunted young male deer to enter the young hounds.

Lawless Day at Exeter

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